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Apollo Square
Sitemap ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Apollo Square ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is an example of a existing BS1 game 'level' (BS1/BS2/MP/DLC) expanded with all the inaccessible parts added for a MMORPG map. Apollo Square Map of 6 levels, amended to show spaces we didn't have access to in the Solo game : Revised Level Maps : (Click To Enlarge) Game Map Rework Rules --- --- --- --- --- Map's Compass Orientation is based on Safety Airlock connection to Olympus Heights. This maps view from that has been turned CW 90 degrees. There is some Overlap with buildings from Olympus Heights map. As seen in the other maps, transportation systems take up alot of space, which is not unusual as it typically makes up 1/3 of Urban land usage (think about it - streets, alleys, parking lots, trainyards, airports, driveways, sidewalks, etc...). Likewise building structures have more monolithic (simplified) sides and various volumes within that space is now shown put to typical purposes. As has been frequently mentioned : There are alot of Utility spaces hidden behind various walls to support a living environment for the people in these buildings - heat/power/water/air/insulation all need to be provided. These diagrams only hint at the pervasive complexity of those systems, which are largely out of sight. As usual the window placements are clumsily and unevenly positioned (and lacking in many building seen from their exterior views to HAVE windows). Likewise, external wall lines frequently aren't consistent from floor to floor (weird overlaps and sticking out bits). My map diagrams of the Viaducts (including the large Trolley Viaducts) do NOT have all the structural supports bracing their Window surfaces or many of the internal pillars seen in-game. You might note that the scale of the drawings is relatively crude (2.5 pixels per foot) and many small terrain detail and ones with odd angles/curves are hard to represent clearly. Apollo Station (where you first enter the level) is a convergence of various transport systems (including access from Olympus Heights). The Trolley lines now are extended to something realistic, and 'sub' parking garage/taxi service is integrated into that building. --- --- --- Fixes : There are the usual stitched together weirdness found in may Multi-Player maps (added into this map 'level'), with levels mismatching in their volumes, with blocked doors (leaving large unused voids) and windows in odd places putting them well inside the normal external wall lines (if you consider the outline of the floor above or below). These have been corrected (and unfortunately required some rather strange inset adjustments for those window locations). I suppose the MMORPG use could be fixed better (more drastic things HAVE to be fixed elsewhere in the in-game maps). - Relocated the Bathysphere Station : Odd that the area's Bathysphere Station is adjacent to the nearest things we've seen to a poor tenement district in Rapture (note that real world 'Free' usually turns into 'squalid' ) - and is an unlikely location for an expensive/fancy Metro 'Sub' Bathysphere-type transport (Suchong may have been its only customer). I have relocated a minimized Bathysphere 'Transfer' Station WITHIN Apollo Square on level 0, and linked via added stairways to the main public level (ditching that overly fancy elevator used to reach the one in the game, which was only contrived as a Plot Block preventing the Player exiting the game level). Olympus Heights is much more affluent, and IT would have THE big Station. A Proper large station, even bigger, fitting to impress the people more likely to use/afford its service, has now been added on THAT level map (and is connected into Athena's Glory). The Apollo Square station is now just an adjunct to it. These Bathysphere Stations in general are rather oversized for their function (We saw one (of two) in Fort Frolic of modest size, with them using one third of the interior footprint of the bigger ones). The Transfer Station NOW inside Apollo square should be one of these less ostentatious mini-stations. A single 'Transfer' Station is now more logically relocated within the the Apollo Square transit hub where it would have maximum utilization, and easier passenger access for the building cluster. The 'square' is now properly a transit 'hub'. It links to the nearby Olympus Heights Bathysphere Cable Station to use that Station's mechanical infrastructure, connecting there with all the 6 Bathysphere routes (instead of expensively/needlessly duplicating all that machinery). The Bathysphere Station was originally (in BS1) shown quite a ways down under the Trolley Viaduct level (and remember that original 'Sphere Station structure itself is several floors tall, AND includes the unseen water entrance-levels/airlocks below the visible floor of the passenger loading area). That is making the building in this cluster way-too-tall -- just so the Level Devs could give you that elevator ride, which Fontaine blocked (for plot reasons), and maybe so they didn't have to detail the seafloor and show more vertical buildings out the windows. --- The Original Apollo Square map (in-game) is incorrect in showing Artemis Suites buildings staircase connections - too many arrows. Each two adjacent floors only had one staircase connection between them (the 3D map set did not 'double stack' staircases directly). It also doesn't show the balcony walk going all the way around on the second floor. For some reason "Artemis First Floor" is draw as if it was a separate floor from the entryway (now fixed). The entryway (just past the interior airlock) we take into Apollo Square has Trolley tracks that actually represent its continuing thru (is blocked off), but the open floor section near the Vita-Chamber intrude into where those tracks would actually extend (... A dimensionally-challenged level designer? or one that just didn't care? ...). I've adjusted to allow the Trolley track to continue on into the Trolley return loop (A typical End-Of-Line feature used to send Trolley cars back in opposite direction on the other track with the least delay.) Various changes to stairways in the vicinity of the sunken Trolley lines have been made to give them proper access (note - station stops are no longer in the Viaducts - rather they are now in Transit hubs UNDER the cluster's building's main floors -- requiring less walking for the customers ...). Artemis Suites has lots of doors (indicating numerous apartments), some not in logical places (too small an area behind or overlaps into stairwell behind the wall) - adjustments were made to make them work better. The building interior is extended to match the original dimensional which was inconsistent with the visible external facade (it now matches the extent of floor layouts above and below). Hestia Chambers' external Sea view (the building facade we see) is too narrow and doesn't match the size of the interior spaces. I widened it out on the interior floor layout to represent a building of about 120 ft wide. The interior floor plan also is offset from its ground entrance by an additional 20+ feet. Utilities and some small rooms were added there to fill out the front of the building's interior, including a viaduct connection to the adjacent building. The Apollo Square building's facade (a caricature) shows 11 levels up (above the Trolley roadbed), when the inside area under the window ceiling is only about 6 stories (5 for my maps plus an extra high first floor). A decorative 'false front' Facade has been indicated on level 5 to represent the extra 'stylish' shaping many Rapture buildings were build with (note how thin that Facade structure is compared to the normal building's structural walls.) --- --- --- Additions : A Statue of Apollo (copy of original by Praxiteles) graced the Station area (at the transition point to Olympus Heights). Now long gone, probably broken up and used to build barricades (Atlas allegedly used the head in a mixed parody of Hamlet and the French Terror ... "Alas, poor Andrew Ryan, I knew him well Rapture..." (or not). Some of the odd twists and turns of the Trolley track system are due to the Metro being a consolidation of several smaller earlier local Trolley systems in the City, with later modifications to meld it into the one system. The AE (which is more like a subway system) handled longer distances, but just wasn't convenient for medium range passenger transportation, and various Trolley feeder lines had been built (acting like buses) to connect the Train Stations with City's many sprawling groups of buildings. Artemis - added level 0 (for the 'through' Trolley tracks) with stairs going down to access on the right side of floor 1. Added a Bathysphere Transfer Station to Artemis Suites (to try to reflect one shown in BaS) ?? It is tied into the added commercial part of the building. Added A Jet Postal Substation to Artemis Suites (most building clusters in Rapture would have one local). A further 'Basement' level (omitted) would be similar to that seen in Olympus Heights, with Sewer infrastructure linking all the buildings (and running directly-under/integrated-with the Trolley Viaducts -- also like what is shown on the Olympus Heights map), for utilities and the usual Foundation concrete and drainage systems. Just like on the extended Olympus Heights level map, you might notice that the Trolley car outlines seen on the maps are a bit larger than the toyish caricatures existing in BS1 (those ones which are so tiny that they would have made sardines uncomfortable, those don't even have seats inside - or you would have noticed more how ridiculously cramped they were). My revised cars have a somewhat larger replacement design, which can carry a modest capacity of 28 passengers seated, with plenty of space for the operator and the passenger aisle. The Trolley Viaducts have been widened a little to allow for the slightly larger track space this larger Trolley design would need. Now Shown : The (added) Bulkhead doors on the Trolley Tunnels (Tracks and Passengerways) - These are NORMALLY kept open, but are ready to slam shut if there is a significant leak in any of the adjacent sections. They are EMERGENCY DOORS with simpler mechanism, and take a long time to be reopened. Notice - just about every building (I've detailed) now has a lower level airlock which in an emergency would allow access to a sealed-off building, allowing personnel to enter to make repairs (Big Daddies/whoever), or to bring in supplies while the occupants waited for the Bulkhead Seals to be certified safe and reopened (after they had closed due to a major leak event). Added an elevator in Apollo Square and stairs to get to higher levels. Shops/Offices were added on levels above/around Apollo Square. Added Night Club on upper level (4) of Apollo Square "The Apollonian" (closed in the City's 1952 economic distress, never reopened). Added a Security Station at Apollo Square (greatly bolstered later because of the area being a hotbed of Atlas' rabble rousing and thuggery). Something not obvious : every building had to have its minor Pumping System to handle the constant seepage of water through the primary concrete structure (and the precipitation on cold surfaces facing the ocean outside). So : Added the typical Pump Station, Maintenance Airlocks, numerous Utility system spaces, accessways, AND Restrooms. A Jet Postal substation for the building cluster was placed in the Apollo Square building. Offices for the Trolley system are also in the building's lower level (adjacent to the junction tracks). Added a Electric Sub-Station to the Apollo Square Building (for general utilities and to power the Trolley system). A Trolley Express freight operation in the 'Square' hub basement (pallet sized containerized packaging quickly slid On and Off Trolley Freight units ...) Buildings to the sides of Trolley viaducts have Pedestrian viaducts connecting them to each other and into the transit hub. Other simpler viaducts at a lower level would probably bring in the supplies for those buildings. Note - an unshown lower utility/sewer level for these building also exists which has additional 'utility' transport. Apollo Square was a bit too plain for an important intersection of transportation. It is the likely spot for various services and 'convenience' stores. These have been added/represented along various previously blank walls of the main floor's ante chambers. Connections via Viaduct to several of the adjacent buildings allowing access to the Tram line (city Transit) have been added/elaborated, as those buildings would NEED to tie into the city's transport system (which is located in the 'Square'). Other visible Viaducts have been connected logically to various buildings (they are the equivalent of 'sidewalks', providing access). --- Added a "Submobile Garage" on the upper levels of 'Apollo Station', of 2 levels, with parking space for 10 of the standard 'private' Submarines. A Repair Garage with overhead crane is also part of this establishment. The size and complexity of the facilities required for these 'submarines', makes obvious they were things belonging to 'Rich' People or to Companies. Understand that you would need similar facilities on the other end (wherever) to be able to make use of these vehicles. A shortcut path from Athena's Glory (in Olympus Heights) leads over to access the Garage and the Trolley Station. That 'Submobile' facility probably was retrofitted onto Apollo Station only after the 'private' Submarine technology was developed, and the vehicles were being built and sold. If it was a 'craze' (as Prentis Mill says in that Audio Diary Audio Diary - "Just a Fad" ), then it was a small craze involving rich people (and NOTHING like 'automobiles' became in the USA decades earlier - owned by everyone and something significantly changing people's transportation/lives). - Added 'Quicksilver Place' (now renamed "Fontaines Center for the Poor", and later by the time of BS1 a burnt and wrecked hulk) made from the BS2 Multi-Player map level building layout... It likely became a minimal maintenance/expense, maximal propaganda project for Atlas'/Fontaine's agenda. The many (seen) blocked off doors now have added their corresponding apartments. Hallways and lots of small rooms (not seen in the original game map) have been added to fill out the obvious volume shape of the building, along with various communal facilities. The irregularities of the floor plan (something not usually seen in low-rent establishments) means that it was at least a medium-rent type operation before Fontaine got his hands on it and then modified to cram it with poor people. Fontaine likely obtained it well after the 1952 economic recession (it was several years before ADAM got big). There is the possibly it was one of the Wales Brother's "leaky" buildings, which eventually made it unacceptable for its originally intended occupants. - The original BS2 map had the building connected to whatever (it is supposedly the Hestia building modified to make the typical MP group game layout) having the same ridiculous kind of dead-end Trolley Viaduct. It now has been fitted adjacent to Apollo Square (accesses by a walk-type viaduct) as an additional building utilizing that (previously) dead-end alcove of the 'square'. This area is not accessible as of BS1 because the 'Civil War' wrecked it, and damaged its structural integrity (the Emergency Bulkhead Seal is closed/down). - A secret Fontaine smuggling storage area is now located in the basement of "Center for the Poor". Fontaine had many distribution points to facilitate his illegal smuggling operations (and the basement of this area looks like one of the least favorite to City Constables. A nearby airlock was used to transfer goods from small submarines. An obscure passage to the Trolley tracks likewise would be used to ship Contraband, as would the Sewers later as security got tighter. Fontaine (the smart pre-BaSx version), while planning his own demise, would have secreted away many useful supplies, to be used by his new Atlas persona, to buy support and further his conflict with Ryan. It is rumored, an entire new Smuggling 'Den' was established somewhere else in Rapture to continue some Smuggling operations after Fontaine was 'killed', and the first Smuggling base location was exposed/shutdown. - Artemis Suites is 8 floors (the visible in-game interior, including the entry floor) and basement. It is a grey windowless building (Seriously, was it that hard to have had a coat of paint of some more lively color ?? And even Hestia's "Home for the Poor" has some exterior windows.) I added some building facilities accessed via the blocked first/ground floor doors, which now lead as well to the (seen) Viaduct connecting to the adjacent Artemis Bow (Tower), and to the Trolley/Tram station below. The higher floors have now had a complementary apartment set added (to have 2 sets per floor to fill that otherwise illogically empty building volume - the Level Dev didn't even bother to have barred/locked/blocked doors leading into them). Because the interior apartments left a large unused void within the dimensions indicated by the external building facade (on the South side of the building, as seen from the Trolley viaduct) - I've added a stacked set of small commercial offices (with separate elevator and stairwell) on the building South side. Stacked walkway Viaducts were visible, shown extending to the adjacent (Artemis Bow) building, but with no interior indication (that we could see) of such a path/connection inside the game's Artemis Suites interior. Those have been added to the layout. A likely floor plan for Artemis Bow (the adjacent Tower - google the myth...) is shown - a transport core of elevator/stair/utility shafts/hallway. This takes up alot of space, as it would for a small building - another reason why tall narrow buildings in Rapture don't make all that much sense). The exterior structural pressure wall (which is significantly thicker than any Surface buildings need be) also shrinks the available interior space. Offices/small apartments could be in this building with all those nice Art Deco-typical windows (NONE of the game level building interiors had that kind of "row of window" arrangement which we see represented on building in so many of the outside views - I have simplified THEM to have fewer windows now, as you can see on these maps). The whole Artemis Suites building (and neighborhood) probably was better "kept up" before Fontaine got his hands on it. By the time of BS2, the building may have leaked severely enough to have been sealed off. In Artemis Suites it was a bit lame/wrong/bad-design to have only one apartment per floor (and on opposite sides sometimes) when the layout profile of the building would have then had a huge amount of wasted space within its volume. Lower floors have double sized apartments, but the upper floors (no elevator) are now show to have 4 apartments per floor. Artemis Suites was one of few buildings (in-game) that has a large number of floors shown (8 total counting the bottom entry) of stacked apartments. These additional floors you can't get to in the Solo game. Those additional floors have not been included on this map set. They would largely be duplicate floor plans of the floors below -- 2/4 apartments sets per level, with the same stair pattern. Practically (in real life), they would probably have warranted an elevator or two originally in that central air well with that many floors). The Artemis Suites apartment interiors we do see (in-game) have been gutted and turned into dormitories (with communal facilities) to be able to fit far more people than originally planned/designed for. - Hestia Chambers is 5 floors including the basement, (the caricature exterior shows more like 8 floors, but we discount that as level dev's window dressing). The Trolley now runs thru, below that 'Boiler Room' in the first floor). The Hestia 'Boiler Room" has no "boiler" (rather it should be a Heat Exchanger system for the Hot Water coming from Hephaestus, if it WAS to be shown correctly). Notice that Hestia has very few external windows (they add expense). One building facing seen from the viaduct has some rows of windows (but that's the usual issue of a level interior/exterior mismatch). West edge of Hestia Chambers (filler floor space to match the entry floor's layout - those blocked doors indicated there existing more of the building on that side). What is in there (what would match the tenement part of the place ?)? Fix - Additional small apartments to 'Pack Em In" in the buildings front-end extra volume (not accessible in BS1). I've added space at the front of building for small rooms (with all those windows you saw from the viaduct). These were probably some 'deluxe' 'STUDIO' rooms originally ... The Entry floor of Hestia now (logically) has Apartments once accessed from now rubbish/debris obscured doors (There must be a good reason for them to have been blocked off). Hestia's apartments appears to have significantly rearranged interior walls/partitions. In some rooms there are stairways which appear to have been added (they don't make sense in the original 'flats' layout). The layout looks to be previously laid out with 2 apartments per floor in the main building 'light well'. Fontaine probably bought it cheap and gutted much of the interior space for his dormitory style flophouse. I'm not sure why the two lowest apartments have stairs down into the 'Boiler Room'. If it had been for some shared facilities, like a laundry, the doors should have been out into main building 'well', and NOT requiring any stairs or going through someone else's apartment. (( '' Level 'artist' who didn't do his homework ... '' )) The Hestia building is labeled inside as 'Little Sisters Orphanage', when out in the Trolley Viaduct the sign says 'Fontaines Home for the Poor'. I supposed it could be both, and that extra corrected volume could have been the processing center to collect ADAM from Little Sisters (putting them in with the general 'poor' residents might have 'weirded them out' too much (both Fontaine's "poor" and the LS)). --- http://rapturerebornmmorpg.wikia.com/wiki/File:RTA_connects.jpg http://rapturerebornmmorpg.wikia.com/wiki/File:RTA_connecting.jpg pix from near bulkhead airlock to Olympus Heights "Apollo Station" - Terminus of One of Raptures Trolley Lines Trolley loop ending/'terminating' in Apollo Station -- an End-Loop is a way of turning Trolleys with less work/labor/mistakes/delay and allows use of single ended cars (many old trolleys were bi-directional and you actually flipped the seats over to face the movement direction). On a double track system the car returns the way it came on the other track. The original tracks near this station were the closest thing they have showing the Trolley going 'through' (as a real system would have), shown in-game with the 'through' path portals being sealed off with corrugated metal sheeting. Ramps on Trolley tracks changing level (largely for the original 'station' platforms or to go thru buildings) have been mostly eliminated. Tracks now are extended to go through BELOW the main floor of Squares and buildings. Passengers now come down stairways to a raised platform/walkway level (the spots out on the Trolley Viaduct needn't be used any more for passenger loading 'stops'). I've stretched the Trolley lines quite a bit on this revised/corrected map (they WERE ridiculously short even for a route with only a single stop) to space out the level's buildings to prevent overlap with some Olympus Heights buildings. As usual, the game's caricature/prop buildings are undersized to have Forced Perspective. But since these buildings are so close, and located along a viaduct where you can see them from significantly different angles, you could notice how tiny they actually are (which can defeat the Forced Perspective idea). Anyway, those original adjacent buildings generally were far too small (tall and too thin) to be practical - in Rapture's environment you want to maximize interior space, and with the least ratio of outside surface area. A matching scale-up was done for 'adjacent' buildings to make them as large as they are portrayed. --- --- --- Oddities : Not sure why there is a force pushing you away from the elevators leading to the Bathysphere to Point Prometheus (it won't let you get close to them - pushes opposite direction if the plot hasn't advanced yet). Did the devs run out of logical reasons that Fontaine could have locked that path from you, so you would be forced to do the plot stuff in Hestia/Artemis first ??? Easy enough to just have some Bathysphere door/gate unlock Key/combination/override-fix you had to acquire/do - that would make ALOT more sense and at least be plausible (rather than some 'pre-conditioned' compulsion to stay away from THAT one door, which makes absolutely NO SENSE here). Sloppy work, which smacks of some half-baked/rushed level design/development. - Artemis Suites - Actually it is a bit odd to only have stairs (no elevator) in a building with apartments of this size, and similarly to NOT have any windows (this place DIDN'T start out as a slum, and even with stripped down walls, there is no indicator even of sealed-over window portals (I guess the Dev decided to cut them as they might subtract from their new and fresh slummy decor ). I've added an elevator for the now added Commercial Office part of the building, but the existing map really didn't offer a good way (without severe rearrangement) to have elevator access on any but the ground floor. (Maybe there was one of those old style 'Birdcage' type elevator shafts in the central 'court' area which was wrecked and removed - there was no evidence of one like that being there (the MMORPG could add that). - Fontaine's Center for the Poor and Little Sisters Orphanage (Hestia Chambers) -- being a hotbed of Rebel activity, why should it NOT be Reasonable for Ryan to have it cordoned off to contain the terrorists within ??? The Novel mentions that Fontaine/Atlas gets in and out via the sewers to 'community organize' his gang of killers. Diana McClintock falls for the romanticism of being a 'rebel' and pays the price when she fatally discovers it is all a sham by the still living sociopath Fontaine. - What exactly does "Gene Traitor" mean ?? (seen in Apollo Square where the gallows is). That does NOT sound like something Ryan would say (none of his verbage is about 'genes') about the Traitors and Terrorists on Atlas/Fontaine's side. You see this scene after Fontaine has taken over, so MAYBE it is Fontaine executing Ryan supporters (but the Game Devs never explain, and it misleadingly implies Ryan did it -- again following that constant manipulative drumbeat "Ryan and Capitalism is Evil", "Ryan and Capitalism is Evil", "Ryan and Capitalism is Evil" ...). The Apollo Square area had been cut off from the rest of Rapture in an attempt to contain Atlas's murderous thugs from disrupting the rest of the City, and the point NOT made clear is that Ryan did NOT simply murder his opponents as Fontaine (and later Lamb) would have done. The people supposedly penned up here are now (in BS1) gone and there are no "Bodies Stacked like Cordwood", so the Pheromone Control of most of Atlas's Splicers must have worked - including on many of the detainees in Apollo Square. The Splicers wandering around are probably still out to collect that 1000 ADAM Bounty Ryan put on 'Spy' Jack, but haven't got the memo yet that Ryan is dead (might take a quite while for Fontaine to figure out all the things Ryan controlled). - All those buildings adjacent to Apollo Square and Artemis Suites (you see them out the windows) must've been rather unlivable for their original occupants, once Atlas's murderous Splicers and rabble organized nearby, perpetrating their anarchistic/destructive activities. There probably was a flood of refugees FROM the area, citizens who simply didn't want to be murdered by Atlas's goons. - ??? Seriously, the "Watch out for the Trains" signs/lights when the Trolley system was made so damned pathetic by the level artists. - Signs : Olympus Heights 101, Hestia Chambers 101, Artemis Suites 101. These are at Apollo Square ("Apollo Square 101"), where the buildings are hundreds of feet away along a 'street'. (Shouldn't it be 'One xxxxxxxx' ? ... "ONE Olympus Heights"). Reused/Cloned Assets. - There is no indication of lower floors on the game level to match the many caricature levels seen continuing far below in the sea window views (those usual disjunctive level views). I have sewer/basement/foundation levels immediately below the main in-game level we have access to. (Would you WANT the local sewer to be at a higher level than your apartment ?? The Ocean window views also show plenty of (too many) higher levels for many of the local buildings.) - Automatic doors - working in a tenement ??(Pick any one of them ) In a Low-rent place that's been there a while, you would be lucky if half of the auto-doors still worked (nobody pays for maintenance). For one of Fontaine's 'poor' residential facilities/flophouses - make that more like less than 1/3 working (OR he never even went to the expense to have them - possibly removed and sold them -- or transplanted them into a New Smugglers Hideout (?) ). Fontaine probably would have said : "Those sad-arsed suckers don't need no fancy doors". - The stairs in some of the Hestia Chambers apartments are odd. REAL WORLD Small tenements wouldn't waste space on apartment with their own internal stairs, and thus wouldn't have any split level apartments. Retrofitting of such really doesn't make all that much sense either (the hole in the floor is OK). Likewise being strange is that 'boiler room' down stairs with access WITHIN an apartment, when the normal/logical design is to have the access from the central open 'court' area (it only required a doorway off that strangely blank entry floor). "Thrown Together Level" is par in this game, with SO MANY irregular and convoluted maze-like floorplans everywhere. - The now Free "Metro Pack" stuff (giving you more MP maps) was good to get access to (I added more than a few of those interiors to my Amended_Game_Level_Maps). It was not overly bright of the game company to originally sell those EXTRA MP scenarios (thus to have many Players NOT have them). Only a fraction of the MP Players would bother to pay extra for those - THUS making it of dubious value for those who DID buy the "Metro Pack" (not enough MP Players having the required maps to matchup those scenarios online). MP - Funny thing is : After they moved the BS2 MP Matchup Server to Steam (and Resetting the character advancement) with some mods being visible to parts of the MP game, I spent alot of time in 'private' games (they do run with only 1 player in that game mode) examining MANY of those MP scenarios to create these maps. Without fighting anyone, so far, I've gotten to level 10 - you simply get alot of 'ADAM' advancement for simply existing in a running MP game (so it gets you up through the weapons/ADAM advancement even if you are a lame player). - I've Reused the Multi-Player Area "Fontaines Center For The Poor" (now added as an additional building now marked "Ex-QuickSilver Place") : Third Floor gated Door (across those balcony bridges with gun turret) with fancy awning over it. Maybe it was the residence of Fontaine's "Ward Boss" - some thug who ran the place, and from that height could make sure there were "no problems" ("problems" wound up 'disappeared' and becoming test subjects for some still-crude Plasmids and dodgy Tonics). The Postcard 'Welcome Home' (they show on the MP Loading screen) - that sounds like Fontaine's disingenuous kind of remark he would make for his 'beneficiaries' (future cannon fodder). Not sure what the sign 'Sea Gate 12' is all about (MP level Center for the Poor), and having that right above some kind of Rollup Vending Stand makes even less sense. Other such signs are associated with maintenance access and such, but generally no large sign would be needed for it. Another recycled asset. With all the available wall volumes for utilities, I'm not sure why there should be those exposed large pipes up near the ceiling running across (ruining the ceiling's flowing lines and ambiance). More Level Dev stuff 'filling in' just to 'fill in'. Unlikely for them to be 'repairs', with Fontaine as the landlord. Note to level devs - pipes don't much come in from the sea in Rapture. - In that MP map, in Suchong's Free Clinic, one of the anatomical diagrams is for the Ostrich, and the nameboard inside also lists Steinman (its a reused Asset ... DLC) For the MMORPG, some Missions might deal with what went on in this 'Free Clinic' with interesting Flashback Scenes and unsavory details of another of Fontaine's shady (if not utterly criminal) projects. Mini-Scenario -- you get to play the 'Ward Boss' and keep control of the 'Problems' for Fontaine, and use various coercive methodologies to keep things running "smoothly". --- --- --- Observations : Apollo Square probably had something previously there in the middle of that space besides Gallows and Hung Corpses (unless THAT was an artistic 'installation' depicting "Soviet-Communist Parasitism's Reward For The Individual" - some NON-Unconscious 'art' that Ryan COULD sponsor). The whole Gene Traitor thing really makes little sense - probably the writers thought it could mean something (more anti-Ryan shit) - though consider that we DO SEE this AFTER Atlas/Fontaine is now running Rapture, so he really could be fully responsible for that display of murders. BTW - SO Splicers weren't crazy enough to hang themselves ???? - Interiors like Hestia Chambers would NOT have big/huge wooden columns (or ceiling beams) in their interiors -- even IF they were 'deluxe' and not tenement type construction originally. That wood couldn't be structural (when there is concrete doing that behind them), and wood is EXPENSIVE in Rapture. Wainscoting/paneling decorations would be fine as an overlay (seen ripped out to 'squalidize' the place), but massive wood like the beams/columns makes little sense for these buildings (it shows the limitations of the level designers, who decided to "dress up" the standard concrete wall Assets somehow (( '' Ceiling beams in the wall corners serve no real purpose - not even aesthetically, and in some rooms the nice intact wallpaper is still there but with these weird beams (and exposed pipes) sticking out from them --- minor details, but it demonstrates lack of planning/knowledge/caring about such setting details. '' )). - Fontaine's Home For The Poor is laid out like it was previously a boarding house type of operation, with small apartments and a selection of small rooms (not everyone needs alot of personal space and can saved money by not using such - economy/studio apartments). This was something typical of urban dwellers at the time, and Rapture would have had such building built to cater to that frugality. It is no wonder that there are few windows in those rooms, as that feature adds greatly to its construction (and potential maintenance) costs. - One of the things you might notice : The buildings WE go through in-game have virtually no windows out to the sea (and of the few they are of a 'porthole' type), while all the adjacent buildings out there have sides COVERED in windows (in between the "Stripped column" architectural form most of them have). Windows, are expensive and also are a structural liability. So buildings built for lower-end housing might likely omit them. Remember though, that you really can't have those striking seascape views - as light diminishes rapidly in water - far too quickly over short distances, (the slab sides of nearby plain building are hardly exciting anyway). Thus 'engineered' Rapture really would have many FEWER windows -- reserving them for special spots with a worthwhile view -- for views with sufficient bright lightings. Looking at windows on the side of an immediately adjacent building 'gets old' fast. --- Those Walls of "Missing" pictures of people (seen in Apollo Square) : There can be all kinds of chaos during wars, and with ADAM insanity ontop of it, even in a closed City, people would just disappear. The authors, with their "Ryan is Evil" mantra, likely wanted it to appear that all these people were allegedly 'murdered' by Ryan. But in a warzone, there are often casualties 'caught in the crossfire', and many (not only combatants) were possibly killed by Atlas's terrorism and blamed on Ryan. The Devs probably intended to imply that these people were 'disappeared' by 'the tyrant' Ryan, but one of the most effective methods of terrifying a population is not just to murder people randomly in the streets, but to make them disappear entirely. The ruthless Atlas/Fontaine would use such tactics with his Splicers to get what he was after - taking over Rapture. Large numbers of people would not support Atlas (most people like Order, versus ANARCHY, and not starving, and not being murdered, and so WOULD NOT voice those rabbleroused complaints Atlas purposely used to foment unrest). People who didn't go along with him would need to be terrorized for him to control Rapture. Ryan had jails in Persephone to dump people who worked/fought for Atlas. Apollo Square looks like it was closed off because Atlas hid there frequently, and it was too much of a warren for the authorities to control directly. It was not exactly a concentration camp as seems to be implied, more like an uncontrollable hazardous slum/ghetto, best 'walled off' from the rest of the City. Ironic would be most of those people in those pictures being 'disappeared' by the murderous actions of Atlas's minions, while at the same time Atlas encourages such 'Blame' Walls in his propaganda campaign against Ryan. You might notice that the same people are repeated over and over. --- People from Apollo Square would have used the AE station at Olympus Heights (no need to duplicate all those facilities when it is that close). It is likely one of the earlier Pre-Consolidation Trolley lines was used to shuttle AE passengers to the buildings in this cluster. Some of the apartments in Artemis Suites have the false walls used to insulate the inhabitants from the cold concrete the building is constructed of. In the occupied rooms, that false wall was obviously stripped away revealing the wooden posts previously used to hold those false walls. The ceilings likewise are exposed or their original surfacing is gone. --- Artemis Suites with no Elevators and ascending stairs on OPPOSITE sides of the central airwell ??? That's something equivalent to the usual handsitting-bureaucrats/game-designer ignorance/carelessness/ineptness without much consideration/knowledge of how things actually work in the Real World. (There are endless stairs in Hell for bureaucrats to climb with sore feet and terrible burdens - for eternity ...) People don't like trudging up/down stairs, and this place hardly looks like it was originally a tenement (they are quite large apartments), and if you look, there are several more floors higher than you can't access in the game (( '' could you imagine going back and forth, floor after floor, between those seperated stairs to go up 6 levels ? Level designers often are quite brain dead know-nothings '' )). For the MMORPG, I would probably make some modifications to have an elevator for the apartments in this building. (One of those wrought iron, semi-open types standing in that middle area). Actually, the whole place looks like it was INTENTIONALLY turned into a shithole. After all, Fontaine didn't want people there to feel content in any way. He wanted to stoke their resentment, to cause trouble for Ryan. A good designer would HINT that it was something better, previously. Artemis Suites (bottom floor) a whole room full of toilets which looked 'too normal' (like it was built that way originally) instead of some hurried cobbled-together facility Atlas organized for his minion/followers/pawns holed up in this section of the city. If you look at the outside (in water) building facade just at the Artemis Suites entrance, you notice for that same building the floors DO NOT match the interior you are just about to enter. It looks like at least a 2 to 1 undersizing. There are about 8 floors visible INSIDE, and that facade easily could have been made to scale - which WOULD have been more impressive looking. All the other nearby buildings would also would have to be done that way - SO WHY NOT ? -- the 3D rendering all looks the same at proper distance and size. It would be nice to not get the weird/wrong looking Parallax effects : of looking at something undersize from so close. The MMORPG would have EVERYTHING properly rendered to scale. --- Get Away You Filthy Little Shit !!! : Papa Suchongs Clinic - why was the Little Sister on HIS side of the glass (the BD broke through it) . And you'd think Suchong would get some of that nice unbreakable glass that are on all the outside windows (and many indoor ones too it seems). He was fairly prudent about 'protecting his own skin'. Stove and Oven in there, was another of Suchongs projects getting Big Daddies to make their own food ? Or maybe the 'Bonding' would be easier over dinner ?? Apollo Square, Suchongs Clinic : That Body labeled "Corpse" may actually be Suchong's assistant ?? The 'Death of Suchong' scene runs a bit contrary to the facilities we see in Point Prometheus where there is a HUGE Big Daddy Making and Training facility that really should not exist UNTIL LONG AFTER the whole 'bonding' thing was all worked out (and the need for ADAM caused Little Sisters to exist first). Why is Suchong doing that stuff here in this dump, when he has that whole facility ? Apollo Square seems to be a rather dangerous place. Would Suchong even be there at that point ? --- All those pictures of people ... Who has a copying machine (or police artist ?) to make all those ?? Atlas's headquarters does ... smells like its a "Blame Ryan the Monster" Propaganda ploy then (particularly when they repeat so much). The un-ruined Apollo Square likely would have some kind of fancy statuary in the Bathysphere (transfer) station. - Some of the Artemis Suite apartments might (as on floor 5) still have their false walls (originally used to contain the damp from raw concrete, and to deaden noise). It might have been interesting having to go through one of those bizarre small Trolleycars to get somewhere (all blocked with debris except for passage through it). Unfortunately the Game Engine they used had problems implementing 'vehicles' the player rides in (and you'd need to create more scenery to go through). - Remember that Hestia (Fontaine's Home For the Poor) was run by (surprise) Fontaine - mostly as a recruitment center for desperate people he wanted as slavish followers. Its a pretty miserable place you see, which wasn't much to do with Ryan (of course, it is heavy-handedly implied that Ryan caused all of this ...). It all seems to have been effective by having people become dependent on Fontaine's welfare handouts, and being indoctrinated into fighting against Ryan's (and Rapture's) Philosophy and become his army of Discontents. It serving as Atlas's base of operations, demonstrated how well the scheme worked, until Ryan isolated most/many of the disruptive troublemakers there. Considering how bad the place was, some (a few) of the people there should have questioned whether this was ALL that awaited those who would later live in a Fontaine-run Rapture. Probably anyone who voiced questions like that mysteriously disappeared (and probably were seen in those pictures on the walls in multiple places - disappearance no doubt to be blamed on Ryan too). - Obsessiveness from the Insane ?? : You look at the "Have you seen me" pictures plastered in MANY places in this hotbed of anarchy, and THEN you notice it is the same set of people repeated over and over. Has some distraught insane person(s) been repeatedly putting up notices for what is really only a handful of 'missing' people !?! We also don't know if these are people Fontaine killed/held hostage, or which Atlas or his terrorists/destructive-minions killed, OR some terrorists/criminal thugs which Ryan's security has sent away to be contained within Persephone. - Audio Diary of Suchong next to his 'body' (odd that the body wasn't labeled like Sander Cohens's was) with a convenient Audio Diary telling the sad story. Suchong was clever enough to fake his own death (too), and to avoid dealing with the growing situation between Ryan and Atlas (particularly if he was likely to be found involved in the whole 'Jack' shenannigans with Fontaine. It still flies in the face of the LS+BD timeline story. - Audio Diary : "Today's Raid" - "We went on a raid outside the wire today. We snagged 31 rounds of buckshot, 4 frag grenades, a shotgun, and 34 ADAM. We lost McGee, Epstein and Vallette. We got one of those goddamn Big Daddies in the bargain, though. It was something awful what they had to do to that little girl to get the ADAM, but we didn't start this thing. Ryan did. I can't wait to tell Atlas. He'll be so pleased..." Audio Diary of McClintock, "playing rebel", talking about 'doing good' getting weapons and ammo, and killed a Big Daddy ... Except then losing several fellow rebels, and seemed for a second to regret also having killed a Little Sister. But then she used the excuse : 'Ryan Started it' (which he didn't) to excuse her barbarism and child killing. And then she was going 'to tell Atlas', which later ended with him killing her ('just to be sure' as it seemed that she might have heard him recording a personal note in Fontaine's voice). So it was her alleged NEW 'Great Man' who did her in (she was just his pawn like every other one of Atlas's followers). - Art Deco Building style construction in Rapture is constrained by the environment, in the arrangements/structures of the windows in particular. Thus, many buildings with 'stripped columns' between the windows there to reverse-buttress (support) the window against the Ocean pressure (a 3x5 foot window has about 300 tons of water pressure pressing against its surface - and bigger windows get far worse than that with the force's leverage working on the panes center). Seeing the sizing of the structures for the Tram tracks (now greatly expanded in length/usefulness), I'm reminded I heard long ago it said : In Urban environments, about a *Third* of the total amount of space (land use) is employed for Transportation (Consider all the things that are considered part of the transport methods even in Rapture, you can quickly notice that that is true). - Hestia Chambers has a very strange layout for an apartment block. It probably was repurposed (bought cheap) after it originally served as something else, like a small factory. The extra/irregular interconnecting stairs between levels for certain 'apartments' is particularly strange, and likely only the artifact of the level designer trying to 'spice up' what would be a fairly repetative floor design pattern. --- Apollo Square of course was further abused by is Gianourmous adjustments to it in Burial At Sea. (Suchong's "secret lab" now the size of Area 51, etc ...) --- --- --- --- --- --- . .